Wednesday, March 12, 2008

March 2, 2008

It's hard to believe that in a few weeks we might actually see the lake again.But then again it's always possible it will still be frozen over with a foot ofsnow on top. Anything is possible here. I look forward to planting flowersthis spring and to seeing color outdoors again. It's rainy today and tomorrow itwill change over to snow. But spring is near!! I miss the orchard with it'sfresh offering of fruit and vegetables. Soon, very soon.

I'm keeping my mind and eyes open for painting inspiration. I have 5 paintingsstarted and 4 more in the planning stages. One of my latest:

November 7, 2007

Lunch today looked like any other lunch in the beginning. A ham sandwich at thetable with Ron, looking out over our little bay leading to the lake. This timethough most of the boats are off the lake for the winter and it's a cold grayday. I'd noticed as I sat down that birds outdoors were having lunch too.Usually by this time they've emptied the neighborhood feeders. Today thoughNuthatches, Purple Finches, Woodpeckers and various others were crowding to getwhat was left of breakfast. Then I saw him out of the corner of my eye. Justfeet from the shoreline stood a huge Blue Heron. He was facing our direction andwell into the neighbors yard. I'd seen this before, but usually at sunset andnot nearly as large a bird as this. He turned around and began his cute walk.That walk they do that looks like they're sneaking up on something even ifthey're not. I didn't run for my camera this time. I was glued to the sight ofhim. We watched closely as his right foot lifted up and ever so slowly down backinto the water. He was stalking fish. The water is crystal clear now that it'scooled off, but finding fish has been pretty tricky for the human fisherman thepast few weeks. Looking into the water we've seen a lot of empty lake bottom.All the sudden the Heron turned around with a long narrow Pike in his mouth. Ithad to be a least a foot long. The fish was wiggling back and forth, but theHeron had a good hold and patiently waited for the fish to give up. TheHeron walked back well onto shore and stood with the fish in his mouth and thentilted his head back and swallowed bit by bit. It was quite a sight!! Well Ithought that should be dinner for today at least, so I was pretty surprised thatjust moments later he went right back to fishing. I don't know if he caughtanything more. He slowly walked the shoreline beyond the trees where we lostsight of him. I can't say I've ever witnessed that before at my lunch table.

The Heron have been migrating, so every evening dozens of them come flying overthe lake just before sunset. I counted 30 one evening all in one group. Theylook prehistoric in flight. They fly in large circles before landing for thenight in a clearing on the other side of the lake. It's quite a sight!